A MATCH WINNER

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 126, 23 November 1935, Page 29

A MATCH WINNER

GEORGE SMITH

RUNNER AND FOOTBALLER

In view of today's New ZealandScotland Rugby Test, it is perhaps not inappropriate to recall something of George Smith, of Auckland, the man who turned the tide of battle in favour of the original All Blacks in the memorable encounter against Scotland thirty years ago. Most followers of Rugby are acquainted with the facts of the match—how the Scottish team ■led by 7 poinfe to 6 with five minutes to go—how Smith made an irresistible run to score, and gave New Zealand the advantage—how Cunningham finally put the issue beyond doubt with another try—but probably few are aware of just how remarkable an athlete was Smith. It is an acknowledged fact that champion sprint runners, with very limited exceptions, do not rise to great heights as footballers—a curious psychological problem which does not readily permit of a solution —but Smith was one of the most noted of these exceptions. Indeed he was the greatest New Zealand track athlete to achieve equal renown on the Rugby field. A fine sprinter and an exceptionally fast starter (he won the national 100 yards title five times and the 250 yards once), he was an even better hurdler, being on several occasions New Zealand 120 yards and 440 yards hurdles champion. He also won the English high hurdles title in 1903 and in 1904 he created a world's 440 yards hurdles record of 58Jsec in winning the event at the Australasian championships. The obstacles in Smith's day, it might be said, were 3ft 6in in height and not as now, 3ft. Perhaps his most outstanding feat was made at the New Zealand championships held at the Basin. Reserve, Wellington, in 1900, when he won four events—the 100 yards, the 250 yards (the distance was. changed to a furlong the following year), the sprint hurdles, and the quarter^mile hurdles. Today if a man wins two finals he is considered to have done an exceptional afternoon's work. VALUABLE ASSET. Smith's speed from the mark, such a valuable asset in Rugby, has already been noted, and here is a concrete example of his ability in this direction. In 1905 he defeated the great.American sprinter, A. F. Duffy, in a 50 yards

handicap at Auckland, equalling the world's record of 5 l-ssec. Smith was certainly in receipt of one and a quarter yards, but he defeated Daffy by eighteen inches, and any man who could beat the American over 50 yards with this handicap, and so handsomely, must have been a runner of very considerable merit. For Duffy was without a peer at 50 yards. •.■•-■■

One remarkable thing about Smith was the fact that he showed top form, both on the track and on. the football field, long after most athletes have decided that they are more or less in the sere and the yellow. In 1905, the year he saved the All Blacks against Scotland, he was thirty-three years of age, and even in 1907 he was considered good enough for Rugby League honours, accompanying the New Zealand team which toured Britain that season. Actually he survived in firstclass Rugby until he was over forty, j for, after accepting an offer to" play in England, he was a prominent figure for1 several years until a broken leg put him definitely out of action. i As a match wanner, and here one 1 must accept the opinion of dispassionate critics, whose memories carry them back thirty-odd years, Smith was the greatest this country has | produced. He had the happy.faculty of turning on fireworks when they were heeded. ' His defence was sometimes questioned by his detractors—it was said that he was- averse to going down to forward rushes—but those who recall him, and were his staunch admirers, while admitting this, declare that he had a method of whipping the ball away from the toes of oncoming forwards, so that defence in the good old I orthodox manner was hardly neces- ! sary. .■■,.'. "" The match today with Scotland is. naturally arousing tremendous interest, and one wonders whether history will repeat itself, and whether a last-minute sortie will be necessary on the part of the New Zea- ! landers to retrieve the game. If it should be, is there a player in the side capable of doing what Smith did thirty years ago? > . ■